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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29622447">his father's son</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/threefundamentaltruths/pseuds/threefundamentaltruths'>threefundamentaltruths</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>bridgerton missing scenes [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Bridgerton (TV), Bridgerton Series - Julia Quinn, Rokesby Series - Julia Quinn</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Aunt Georgie Supremacy, Aunt Winnie? I don't know her, Bridgerton Family Feels, Bridgertons Being Bridgertons, Canon Compliant, F/M, Missing Scene, Pre-Wedding Festivities, She doesn't even go here, Wedding Supper</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 18:02:05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,667</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29622447</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/threefundamentaltruths/pseuds/threefundamentaltruths</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Eloise sighs. “I really, truly do hate to say this,” she says to the rest of them, sounding very put out indeed, “but he’s right.”</p><p>“Hmm, what was that?” Colin asks, tilting his head in Eloise’s direction. “I couldn’t quite hear you, sister dearest. Could you say it a bit louder?”</p><p>Eloise rolls her eyes. “Uncle Nicholas, perhaps you should check his ears. He is getting on in years, you know. Preferably,” she adds deviously, “with something pointy.”</p><p>Wherein a celebratory supper is held at Bridgerton House two nights before Colin and Penelope’s wedding, featuring guest appearances by a certain aunt and uncle (who know their niblings very well indeed) and a certain terror of the ton.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Colin Bridgerton/Penelope Featherington, Nicholas Rokesby/Georgiana Bridgerton</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>bridgerton missing scenes [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2112294</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>137</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>his father's son</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>An outtake from upcoming fic <em>an excellent father</em>  that can also stand alone/as part of the <em><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/series/2112294">bridgerton missing scenes</a></em> because I can’t bear to leave this on the cutting room floor entirely, but it simply wouldn’t all have fit in the other story (tenor and otherwise). One specific portion of a scene you will see again in <em>an excellent father</em>, Part 1. </p><p>Spoilers for <em>Because of Miss Bridgerton</em> and <em>First Comes Scandal</em> from the Rokesby series specifically and the Bridgerton series generally.</p><p>You can find me on Tumblr at <a href="https://your3fundamentaltruths.tumblr.com">your3fundamentaltruths</a></p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A wedding supper is held at Bridgerton House two nights before her wedding.</p><p> </p><p>Two nights because Lady Bridgerton has been <em>very </em>firm on the point that Colin and Penelope must not see one another in the day preceding the wedding.</p><p> </p><p>Penelope has visions of the older woman frog-marching one or both of them – separately, of course – out the door at precisely a quarter to midnight if they have not left before then.</p><p> </p><p>Lady Bridgerton successfully insisted upon such an embargo for every couple in the family, Eloise informs her in not-quite-an-aside.</p><p> </p><p>And nearly all the married Bridgertons (current and former) – not to mention the Duke of Hastings (she tries not to dwell on the Earl of Kilmartin) – remain alive, well, and happily married, so it certainly can’t <em>hurt</em> to listen to Lady Bridgerton.</p><p> </p><p>(Nor, in truth, do either Colin or Penelope have any particular desire to gainsay her; she is so very delighted to see them married that they cannot bring themselves to spoil her fun in any respect.)</p><p> </p><p>It’s superstitious, to be sure, but nor does Penelope wish to tempt fate – not after spending her entire adult life in love with the same man and then finally, impossibly, getting her wish of marrying him after all these years.</p><p> </p><p>Years after that horrid scene on Lady Bridgerton’s steps had given her no choice but to poke fun at the mere thought in her column.</p><p> </p><p>She’d had to. She could not ignore the incident entirely; it would have been suspicious if others overheard it or learned of it later and it <em>didn’t </em>appear in the column. Still, even the imperative of keeping her identity a secret could not have compelled her to share the worst of it. It was one thing to sneer at her fashions, her unpopularity, and even her family in her column, but to willingly tell society that the man she’d been in love with since the day she laid eyes on him had declared his distaste for her on a public street was quite another. It had been beyond even her capabilities of subterfuge.</p><p> </p><p>In the end, she was fortunate to have spent all her tears by the time she penned her account, capping it off with the perfect cruel little jibe, as a last-minute addition to the following day’s column that, in her own opinion, did an excellent job of continuing to throw the scent off her. Otherwise, she suspects, the ink would’ve run all over her parchment despite her best efforts at detachment.</p><p> </p><p>---</p><p> </p><p>She knows her new family rather well after so many years of friendship with Eloise, but she realizes upon her engagement that she is not nearly so familiar with their larger family circle, who are rarely in town, though she certainly knows more than a bit about them, thanks to Eloise.</p><p> </p><p>While her soon-to-be mother-in-law is an only child, the late viscount had a younger brother who predeceased him and two living sisters. The elder is Sybilla, always called Billie, and the younger is Georgiana, more often called Georgie. Both had married into the Rokesby family, who are the Bridgertons’ nearest neighbors in Kent.</p><p> </p><p>Both women are also rather impressively capable in their respective pursuits. Billie, having wed the eldest son and heir, is now the Countess of Manston and runs the estate to perfection. Georgiana assists her physician husband in his practice, is a doctor in all but name due to the foolish rules that bar a woman from practicing in her own right, Eloise explained one day while Lady Bridgerton and Mama pored over the (blessedly small) guest list for the wedding.</p><p> </p><p>Lady Bridgerton had been fretting that she had not heard from Mrs. Rokesby and Eloise had sighed impatiently at the fuss. “Good heavens, Mother, I’m sure she’s just busy and hasn’t had a chance to reply yet. They hate London, but they love <em>us</em>, so of course they’ll be down for a family wedding.” It had been a touch ironic for Eloise of all people to excuse such tardiness, as she is a terribly prompt correspondent herself, but she supposes caring for the ailing is a rather good excuse for putting off one’s correspondence.</p><p> </p><p>More importantly (according to Eloise), Dr. and Mrs. Rokesby are Eloise’s godparents.</p><p> </p><p>Most importantly (again, according to Eloise), Dr. Rokesby is Eloise’s favorite uncle. The last is said in a conspiratorial whisper when Eloise rushes over to greet her aunt and uncle before supper and makes the introductions before Colin can get a word in edgewise.</p><p> </p><p>It isn’t very surprising. Lord Manston may have the advantage of distance, being just a few miles away from Aubrey Hall and more often in town for parliamentary business, but he seems rather forbidding, even with the softening influence of the decidedly not-forbidding and much-loved Aunt Billie.</p><p> </p><p>In making the introductions, Eloise also notes that she had the “very good sense” to choose Penelope as her best friend “years and <em>years</em> ago, you know. She is the very best.”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, you,” she sniffs.</p><p> </p><p>With a twinkle in her eye, Georgiana Rokesby pronounces herself delighted to welcome another redhead to the family – “finally!” – and insists “you must call me Aunt Georgie.”</p><p> </p><p>Good heavens, it’s so <em>nice </em>to be a Bridgerton, Penelope thinks for the hundredth time; she cannot imagine her late great-aunt Georgette ever saying such a thing to anyone.</p><p> </p><p>Then, Aunt Georgie chides Eloise for her refusal to name a favorite among her aunts.</p><p> </p><p>“Well, it’s not as if you’ll name a favorite among your nieces and nephews,” Eloise retorts.</p><p> </p><p>“Nor will your uncle. Are you mad? All the rest would rise up against us and then where would we be?”</p><p> </p><p>“You don’t trust me to defend you?” Dr. Rokesby protests, dramatically placing a hand over his heart. “Why, darling, you wound me.”</p><p> </p><p>“I trust you to patch me up when <em>they</em> wound <em>me</em>.”</p><p> </p><p>“I’ll allow it, although your stitches are better than mine –”</p><p> </p><p>“And he’s an excellent shot, anyway,” Eloise pipes up loyally.</p><p> </p><p>“This is the part where she brags that she’s so good because he taught her,” Colin explains in an undertone.</p><p> </p><p>“Just because you’re getting married doesn’t mean I’ll forgive you for spoiling my fun, Colin,” Eloise cuts in before proceeding to say precisely what he had predicted.</p><p> </p><p>“She was quite the natural before I ever tried,” Dr. Rokesby points out mildly.</p><p> </p><p>“That’s true,” Eloise confirms with an appalling lack of modesty.</p><p> </p><p>Colin shrugs, with one of his typical impish smiles, before fixing his attention back on Eloise. “The truth is, I don’t know why you bother asking; we all know it’s me –”</p><p> </p><p>“It most certainly is not,” Dr. Rokesby mutters, before cutting an apologetic look at Penelope.</p><p> </p><p>She shakes her head and waves a careless hand, hoping it conveys <em>no offense taken</em>.</p><p> </p><p>“Yes, yes, we all know the truth, darling,” Aunt Georgie whispers placatingly. “Just don’t tell <em>them</em>.”</p><p> </p><p>“I am very fond of Eloise,” Dr. Rokesby says with a touch of indignation. Eloise <em>is</em> their goddaughter, after all.</p><p> </p><p>Penelope stifles a laugh. “But not Colin?”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, certainly he is,” Aunt Georgie says dismissively. “How could he not be? It’s simply that he’s immune to Colin’s tender charms.”</p><p> </p><p>She finds her brows rising of their own volition. “I didn’t think such a thing possible.”</p><p> </p><p>“One should hope you wouldn’t,” Dr. Rokesby says dryly.</p><p> </p><p>“I’m told growing up with my brother was quite the inoculation,” Aunt Georgie explains. Ah, yes, Eloise had also mentioned Dr. Rokesby was her father’s very best friend from boyhood.</p><p> </p><p>Dr. Rokesby nods. “It certainly was.”</p><p> </p><p>“Pity it didn’t work half so well on me.”</p><p> </p><p>Eloise, not paying the supposed subjects of their conversation the slightest mind, is still preoccupied scoffing at Colin. “Oh ho, ho, I beg to differ, dear brother –”</p><p> </p><p>Aunt Georgie only shakes her head, laughing too, and lets the Bridgerton bickering carry on as she tells Penelope that she’d known what matter of man her nephew would grow up to be when he was a mere babe in arms. Unlike her husband, she was utterly helpless. “He was just adorable, smiling before any child had a right to. I knew he was going to be a charmer.”</p><p> </p><p>“He can talk his way out of anything.” She grins, giving Colin an affectionate look that he returns, finally distracted from his sibling squabble with Eloise, before adding conspiratorially to Aunt Georgie, “I do believe he could get away with murder if he felt so inclined.”</p><p> </p><p>“Yes, he’s truly his father’s son.” Aunt Georgie’s tone is slightly wistful, but she’s still smiling. She huffs a breath. “It was really so unfair, you know. If I’d gotten into half so many misadventures –”</p><p> </p><p>Colin blinks and gives his aunt a dubious look before his great, big, friendly, slightly mischievous smile overtakes his face. “Is one really a Bridgerton if one doesn’t get into as many misadventures as one can?”</p><p> </p><p>“Is one really a Bridgerton if one speaks so affectedly about oneself?” Eloise asks in the most terribly affected tone imaginable, unable to remain silent for very long.</p><p> </p><p>“If in doing so, one annoys one’s sibling all the more, then certainly.” Colin smirks. “But the original question still stands.”</p><p> </p><p>Eloise sighs. “I really, truly do hate to say this,” she says to the rest of them, sounding very put out indeed, “but he’s right.”</p><p> </p><p>“Hmm, what was that?” Colin asks, tilting his head in Eloise’s direction. “I couldn’t quite hear you, sister dearest. Could you say it a bit louder?”</p><p> </p><p>Eloise rolls her eyes. “Uncle Nicholas, perhaps you should check his ears. He is getting on in years, you know. Preferably,” she adds deviously, “with something pointy.”</p><p> </p><p>Colin shudders. “Never let her near one of your patients, Uncle. She’s got an atrocious bedside manner.”</p><p> </p><p>“I’ll have you know, Colin –”</p><p> </p><p>“God, I missed them,” Dr. Rokesby says in an aside to his wife and Penelope, grinning widely.</p><p> </p><p>“We can hear you, you know,” Eloise reminds him, distracted from whatever point she’d been making.</p><p> </p><p>Colin rolls his eyes. “It was a compliment, you ninny.”</p><p> </p><p>“Except he was speaking about us as if we weren’t here –”</p><p> </p><p>“An hour from now, once they’ve driven you well and truly mad, I’ll remind you just how much you missed them,” Aunt Georgie murmurs.</p><p> </p><p>“Do you really think it will take a full hour?” Penelope asks innocently.</p><p> </p><p>Aunt Georgie grins. “I like you. I really –”</p><p> </p><p>“Mrs. Rokesby! Mrs. Rokesby!” Lady Danbury exclaims, thumping her cane an inch away from Penelope’s foot as soon as she reaches their little group, Colin and Eloise having unsubtly disappeared into another knot of guests. Their loss.</p><p> </p><p>She tries not to be put out that Lady Danbury sounds so eager to see someone besides her at a supper celebrating <em>her</em> imminent wedding.</p><p> </p><p>It was to be a small wedding and an even smaller supper beforehand, but Penelope had insisted Lady Danbury be invited to both. Everyone in the room when they were discussing plans – all but Hyacinth – had looked at her agog, but she won the point. It <em>was </em>her wedding.</p><p> </p><p>“Lady Danbury!” Aunt Georgie cries, sounding somehow both alarmed and more delighted to see Lady Danbury than Penelope has ever heard <em>anyone</em> sound. “It’s been ages.” To Penelope, she explains, “Lady Danbury helped me after I escaped from a kidnapper years ago, before I was married, you know.”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, do tell the story properly,” Lady Danbury interjects. “We all know the kidnapping was why she married this one,” Lady Danbury says, pointing rather dangerously in Dr. Rokesby’s direction with her cane.</p><p> </p><p>Penelope blinks. Finally, she manages, “isn’t it considered impolite to talk about such things, my lady?”</p><p> </p><p>“Yes, but when one is my age, one can do almost anything one pleases, as we so recently discussed, Miss Featherington.”</p><p> </p><p>“Except get away with murder,” she reminds Lady Danbury blandly.</p><p> </p><p>“Ah, I see,” Aunt Georgie says faintly.</p><p> </p><p>Penelope wonders if she did see, actually.</p><p> </p><p>“Kidnapping, on the other hand, is far more forgivable,” Lady Danbury says, returning to the original subject with no small amount of glee.</p><p> </p><p>Dr. Rokesby chokes on a laugh. “To be clear,” he clarifies when he finally recovers his composure. “<em>I </em>was not the kidnapper.”</p><p> </p><p>“No, I imagine not,” Penelope says dryly. “I expect the family wouldn’t like you half so well. They are rather protective, after all,” she adds in what is surely the greatest understatement ever uttered.</p><p> </p><p>“Mad in the head is what they are.”</p><p> </p><p>Penelope smirks just a bit. Uncle knows nephews very well indeed.</p><p> </p><p>Aunt Georgie swats his shoulder, but doesn’t scold; she is clearly no hypocrite.</p><p> </p><p>“Of course, he wasn’t the kidnapper,” Lady Danbury says dismissively to Penelope.</p><p> </p><p>“Nevertheless, I thought it bore saying. I shouldn’t like my new niece to think badly of me.”</p><p> </p><p>“You’re not an idiot, Rokesby.”</p><p> </p><p>“How kind of you to notice, my lady.”</p><p> </p><p>Lady Danbury ignores him. “The kidnapper, on the other hand,” she says emphatically to Penelope, “was an idiot. And in time, met a richly deserved end. This one –” Lady Danbury points at Dr. Rokesby again in case Penelope might have forgotten who they were talking about – “is no idiot. Just a bit slow –”</p><p> </p><p>Dr. Rokesby and Aunt Georgie both quite simply <em>explode</em> into laughter and half the room turns to look at them, but they are helpless to stop themselves, wiping away tears.</p><p> </p><p>Lady Danbury thumps her cane, giving them an irritated look. “Well, it’s true! That idiot never would’ve kidnapped her if you’d been quick enough to marry her before he tried, Rokesby. Fortunately for you, she proved to be quite resourceful.” She pats Aunt Georgie peremptorily on the arm like a proud mama and shakes her head. “Men are fools, even when they’re not stupid. Blind for so long to the excellent women right under their noses.” Her voice rises several octaves. “Yes, I mean you, Mr. Bridgerton!”</p><p> </p><p>When Benedict turns around, startled, Lady Danbury huffs impatiently, “Not you! It’s not your party. The other you. <em>Mr. Bridgerton!</em>” she insists, thumping her cane once more.</p><p> </p><p>Colin finally looks up from his conversation with Felicity and Mr. Albansdale, unable to pretend any longer that he cannot hear Lady Danbury’s summons and barely stifling a groan as he excuses himself to answer it.</p><p> </p><p>Penelope hides a smile behind her hand.</p><p> </p><p>“Isn’t Gregory here, too?” Dr. Rokesby whispers.</p><p> </p><p>“I believe he should be,” Aunt Georgie whispers back.</p><p> </p><p>“He is,” Penelope confirms in an equally hushed undertone. “Let’s not mention it.” Gregory is a lovely young man, but she’s not sure he’s yet developed the spine to spar with Lady Danbury. He’s still a bit green and it seems unfair to throw him into the dragon’s den unprepared.</p><p> </p><p>“Lady Danbury,” Colin says smoothly. “How wonderful to see you.”</p><p> </p><p>“Nobody ever thinks it’s wonderful to see me, except my nephew and my grandson and perhaps your bride, seeing as she invited me, but I thank you for lying all the same.”</p><p> </p><p>Colin’s lips twitch, but he somehow manages not to smile. “Doesn’t my sister come read to you weekly?”</p><p> </p><p>“Hmph.” Lady Danbury snorts. “Hardly. Not nearly often enough, if you ask me.”</p><p> </p><p>“And I did, rather,” Aunt Georgie assures her.</p><p> </p><p>Lady Danbury tilts her head, giving Aunt Georgie a considering look, then nods.</p><p> </p><p>“Georgiana, Nicholas!” Lady Bridgerton interjects with genuine pleasure, appearing as if by magic from behind their group to greet the new arrivals. “<em>So</em> wonderful to see you both. And you, Lady Danbury. We are delighted you could join us.”</p><p> </p><p>Lady Danbury nods briskly.</p><p> </p><p>“Would you mind if I steal them away for a bit? It’s been so long since they’ve come to town, you know. And there is more of the family Penelope has yet to meet, who are very eager to make her acquaintance.”</p><p> </p><p>“Fine, fine,” Lady Danbury mutters as they hasten away, eyes darting deviously around the room, obviously considering carefully the question of which Bridgerton relation she would like to torture next.</p><p> </p><p>Poor soul, whoever it is, Penelope thinks as she’s whisked off to meet Colin’s cousins, but she’s positively grinning at the notion. </p>
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